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Catalogue

The comprehensive German catalogue of the exhibition is available
in the museum shop and in bookstores. The catalogue has been
awarded as one of «The Most Beautiful Books 2012»by the Swiss
Federal Office of Culture. You can find more information here.

Cultural context

We can only surmise which individual deities are actually
represented in this exhibition. Often, they can only be
conclusively identified if their original place of veneration is
known.

According to the participants in the rituals the venerated deities
are actually present in the figures. The gods are present during
the rituals and attend to the requests and woes of their followers.
The religious practise is essentially shaped by the belief in the
transcending significance and effect of the act of seeing: the gods
allow their worshippers to catch a glimpse of them (darshan dena),
which in turn is received by the devotees (darshan lena). By the
gods showing themselves, the visual communication between them and
their worshippers is opened up – in contrast to the hearing of
god’s word in the great book religions (Judaism, Christianity and
Islam).

The gods are not only present in the cult figures, but also in
people, the so-called sirhas, male mediums or dancers in a state of
trance. One cannot decide to become a sirha, it is the deity who
picks a medium. Upon being prompted by the believers, the god or
goddess will take possession of the sirha.

If a sirha is representing a female deity, he will wear a long
dress and a colourful blouse decorated with cowries and mirrors.
The sirha of a male god will wear a hip cloth. He will hold
attributes of the deity in his hands. If he is representing a wild
and powerful goddess, the attribute is often a rope studded with
nails which he will use to flagellate himself, or a trident which
he uses to pierce his tongue. As he is possessed by the goddess, he
is oblivious to pain.